Mr. Wayne Stanley:

I think Mr. Allen drew the comparison, given that the comparison has already been made, with the social welfare legislation. The benefit of having a designed body within the Department that has an administrative duty to look at these appeals is that a body of knowledge is built up. Deputy Ó Broin talked about long-term need. The fact that a person applies for social housing could contribute to the assessment of their intentions into the future. If the Department of Social Protection is making a determination and sees the person has applied for social housing, that would be a part of looking at the assessment. These things are semi-judicial processes. That is where the complexity in all of this comes from. It is very difficult for administrative systems to look at that level of complexity. Administrative systems like hard and fast rules. As there is a need to balance EU and other legislation around reckonable residency, right to reside and all of those things, particularly when one starts getting into the five factors, one is going to get good decisions and bad decisions. If that is to be introduced, an appeal mechanism must be provided. All of those decisions should to one body. In that way, a level of expertise is built up and, over time, there will be fewer poor decisions.